Iconic Austin Blues Club Antone’s Built a Legacy. Now a New Generation Is Keeping It Alive

When Austin autochthonal Will Bridges went to spot Stevie Ray Vaughan with his begetter astatine Antone’s successful 1996, helium was fortunate capable to get his gig poster signed. The signature, however, wasn’t from Vaughan oregon immoderate of his bandmates, but the imperishable sanction connected the marquee: Clifford Antone. Just implicit 25 years later, Bridges and a cohort of friends, including instrumentalist Gary Clark, Jr., would instrumentality implicit Antone’s legacy. 

The poster commemorated the 21^st day of the ever-evolving club, which was founded by Antone successful 1975 arsenic a location to showcase the champion of Austin blues music. It unofficially started successful the backroom of the Antone’s Import covering retailer, which besides had a sandwich store wherever Clifford would clasp jam sessions with Vaughan, Jimmie Vaughan, Doyle Bramhall, guitarist Bill Campbell and others who had a fierce emotion of the blues successful a municipality dominated by state music.

Antone opened his archetypal authoritative nightclub successful Austin’s less-than-picturesque downtown country connected the now-famous Sixth Street. With a show from Zydeco king Clifton Chenier & His Red Hot Louisiana Band, the erstwhile furnishings warehouse transformed connected July 15, 1975, into a caller touring destination for section and touring blues musicians. Antone ran the venue alongside his sisters, Susan and Janelle, arsenic good arsenic his mother, Georgette.

Within a fewer years, Austin’s downtown became bustling again, and the club’s landlords raised the rent. Many autarkic clubs cognize this destiny excessively good — the concern moves into a “non-desirable” portion of municipality for the abstraction and inexpensive rent, and extremity up bringing truthful overmuch concern and foot-traffic to the country that they get priced retired of the vicinity they helped build. So, Antone’s moved to North Austin supra Burnet Road, wherever it continued to invited blues heavyweights similar Ray Charles and James Brown earlier a erstwhile pizza parlor connected Guadalupe adjacent the University of Texas field opened up, and they moved into the space.

The Guadalupe determination — 1 of six the venue would inhabit implicit its 50-year past — is, truthful far, the longest-lasting abstraction Antone’s has inhabited, moving from 1982 to 1996. Acts similar the Fabulous Thunderbirds and Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble dispersed the gospel of Antone’s portion they traveled the country. Even U2 stopped by to cheque retired the storied venue.  

It was besides this determination wherever Bridges met Antone, who often roamed done the venue during shows. “When you saw Clifford, it was similar the cook oregon maître d’ of a edifice moving the floor,” Bridges tells Billboard. “People loved seeing him and getting his autograph and taking pictures with him. He was a celebrity.” 

Antone had not lone a emotion for blues euphony but an encyclopedic cognition of the genre and a heavy respect for its musicians.  

The nine proprietor “was larger than life,” says...